Fistfights and Guns
by Tennessee McCreary
Summary: Danielle used to be the one to protect Annie, protecting her sister from playground bullies. Now it was Annie protecting them from bad people who were more then willing to kill them. Danielle gave people black eyes. Annie gave morgues corpses.


Danielle sighed, as she saw the light coming on from the guest house. Her sister was moving back in. The last few months have been nothing short of an emotional rollercoaster ride. She had gone from angry to sad to happy to angry to terrified to angry. Most of her emotions had been angry. It wasn't enough that her little sister was some CIA agent. No, her husband had been cheating on her.

She had come to the grave realization that their roles had reversed. Her little sister had become the protector, and she was the one who needed protecting. She hated it. She used to be her idiot little sister's guardian. Her protector. And god knows her little sister needed it.

There was a time back when they were kids. She was eight, and Annie was five. Annie would carry a giant stuffed octopus around with her at all times, making her an easy target for all the playground bullies. And goodness, there was a lot of them. But they had just moved. Danielle had the hope that their new location would be different. That children would be nice.

If that wasn't enough, her idiot sister had decided she didn't like her hair, and so she cut it. She had made her hair so short, she was nearly bald. The moment she walked into her new classroom, the bully victims of the class sighed in relief. Their lives would get a whole lot easier. Annie's would not.

Danielle was on the swings, trying to see if she could swing herself into a full circle. She had been told that it was impossible, but she didn't believe it. It was her life goal.

She felt she was getting close when a crying sound filled the air. A crying she knew to be her sisters. She sighed, looking around the playground for where she might be this time. The swing gave her a bird-eye advantage.

Sure enough, she found her sister by the edge of the jungle gym, surrounded by a pack of kids. One of them was holding Mr. D, the octopus. Danielle sighed, leaping of the seat, rushing to save her sister.

"Give Mr. D back!" Annie yelled at them between sobs. She noticed that the pack were tossing around the octopus, playing keep away from the five year old. Danielle looked over the boys. They were bigger then both of them, Danielle figured they were a grade ahead of her.

"Hey!" She yelled at them, getting their attention, "give her back the octopus."

The boys simply looked at her, smirks on their face. She noticed the hopeful look on her sister's face. Her big sister had come to the rescue.

"You want this thing?" One of the boys asked, dangling it in front of her face. He was the leader of the pack, "Okay…but you have to work for it!"

He threw the octopus over her head. Before she had time to react, another boy grabbed it and through it into a tree. Annie sobbed even more. Danielle clenched her fists.

All the boys were laughing. But it was the last straw when the head of the pack pushed her sister face down into the dirt.

Danielle charged at the boy, knocking him down with a punch to the face. She was able to pin him down with her knees, and just kept hitting. Sounds around her blurred.

She felt someone grab her shoulders and pull her off. Two other boys from the pack. Now it was her turn to be held to the ground. Dirt was kicked in her face. She was kicked. But she was scrappy. She was able to slip out of their reach, she kicked one in the legs, and pushed another one into a tree.

By the time, the rest of the school kids were surrounding them in a circle, chanting for them to fight. It was only the three of them versus her. She could handle it.

More punches were thrown, more kicks, more dirt being kicked in people's face. Danielle had managed to take out two of the boys by some miracle. Both were left with bleeding faces and bruised body. Danielle herself had sustained these injuries, but she was strong. She could handle it. But they were still standing. They were chanting for their pack leader, who's name she learned was "Jonah", to beat her. But she could hear her sister cheering for her to "Kick his ass!"

The words they knew as children.

They had charged at each other, and were now wrestling on the ground, yelling at each other. Occasionally, one of them would throw a punch or a kick. But their match was soon ended. A group of kids had ran and fetched teachers, and they were now being pulled apart.

"Go die!" the boy yelled at her, as he was pulled away.

"You first!" she yelled back.

She had gotten a broken nose, a black eye, and a couple of stitches from that fight. She gave Jonah two black eyes, and a broken nose. She had even dislocated her finger from punching him too hard. Her face was swollen for two weeks, and her body hurt to move for longer.

However, it was very satisfying for her dad to confront both Jonah's parents and the school. They asked how he planned on disciplining her. He replied by taking her out for pizza and ice cream. Annie was holding an ice-pack to Danielle's face. They both smiled as they heard their father proclaim how proud he was of his daughter for protecting her sister.

But all of that, protecting her sister, was a distant memory now.

Annie had protected her, but not with fists. She could remember it. She was running as fast as she could to the boat. She had been shot at. A bullet grazed her arm, but she kept running. She had never been more scared, but she didn't look back. She was told not to look back.

The sound of a single gunshot went off, followed by silence. Danielle could tell that either one way or another, it was over. Either Annie was dead and she was next, or her little sister was a killer.

It had turned out to be the latter.

Annie walked out, a solemn look on her face.

"It's over," was all she said. She had some bruises on her face, and Danielle knew she would be the one holding the ice-pack to her sister this time. There would be no father praising her for her braveness, no satisfaction at looking at their enemy's bruised face, no exclamations at how awesome and tough her sister was.

Only silence and ice packs. A life was taken. Her sister had taken that life. They had nearly died. So many thoughts were going through her head. She had so many questions. How often had Annie killed somebody? Why were they in danger in the first place? How often was her sister in situations like this?

There was only one thought that she said aloud.

"I want you to move back in."

And that's exactly what Danielle's protector did.

* * *

><p><em>I love Danielle. She's one of my favorite characters, and that final episode was so brilliant. I wanted to write something to reflect that. I hope you all enjoyed.<em>


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